Digital BW, The Print

Walker Blackwell wrote:

>Sorry. I don't have time to read every post on this subject.  But to 
>answer a quick question.  I've heard that it's a firmware option that 
>hasn't migrated to the US yet. MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THIS OUT!!!! I 
>repeat. I heard this from a friend in the industry and haven't found 
>the firmware yet. They have duel CMYK in Japan (I believe the SP4000 
>has a totally different name there).
>  
>

The dual CMYK 4000 was announced in Europe right with the introduction 
of the 4000.  It may be an even more limited machine if the two sides 
are approached as a single CMYK printer. Just more nozzles per CMYK 
channel to speed things up.

>On a secondary route, StudioPrint lets you double ink channels and 
>print to any channel you want. So yes. As long as you switch your bags 
>and can build a straight CMYK profile, you're cool. As far as true 
>on-the-fly Quadtone + Color printing is concerned, you need one more 
>channel  for K, K1, K2, K3 ---  C, M, Lc, Lm, Y  However, you can run 
>duel quadtone inksets with one split toner . . . that's hot.
>  
>
Many RIPs also have a CMYK driver for CcMmYK printers. If the CMYK inks 
keep their normal place you can use two greys on the cm channels. With 
QTR that allows tritone? printing + toning with the CMY channels. The 
other RIP can use the normal CMYK inks for color printing. This is 
possible on the 7000 up to the 10000.  My Wasatch SoftRip has that mode. 
and with some tweaking I can print the tritone side as well but QTR is 
much better for that. Toning with the full CMY inks isn't wise on the 
9000, the dots show too much. There must be something similar for the 
7600 and 9600 but I have not checked whether that excludes the grey ink 
in CMYK printing like it does exclude the cm inks. I know one RIP that 
will exclude the grey ink on the UC printers, the Scanvec Amiable RIP 
but that is because they still have no driver that uses the grey ink at 
all ;-)   My friend Bernard is pissed about that, 3 years after he 
purchased the RIP + the profile creator and 2 years after he bought two 
9600's he still can not use the RIP for the printers. That's the support 
you get from some RIP manufacturers.

Ernst